


A Sketch of Fate

by jeneralreading



Category: Let's Play (Webcomic)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-15
Updated: 2020-08-15
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:00:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,314
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25906984
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jeneralreading/pseuds/jeneralreading
Summary: In this AU Smash fanfic, Sam is desperately looking for an artist for her new game, and resorts to creating an Indigineer post hoping someone will respond to her request. To her surprise, someone responds the next day.
Relationships: Marshall Law/Sam Young (Let's Play)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 9





	A Sketch of Fate

Sam scanned her post on Indigineer, attempting to spot any potential problems in her request. Her simple paragraph outlined her need for a game artist, careful not to divulge the important details of her newest game to stave off any amount of intellectual property theft. Thankfully, the first game she published on the site had garnered a small amount of fame. Unfortunately, the artist she had worked with on Ruminate wasn’t available anymore, so she was back to square one as far as art went.

She chewed absent-mindedly on her thumb. Anxiety welled within her as she thought through all the different scenarios that could potentially happen once she posted this request. She could get nothing at all. She could get some creepy PMs. She could even get some hate mail. She nibbled the end of her thumbnail for a few more minutes, before finally hovering her cursor over the post and clicking “Submit”.

She sighed and flopped onto her couch, instantly regretting her decision. Bowser scooted her way and whined softly, his concern apparently in his soft nose brushing against her own. Sam smiled and brushed her hand against Bower’s head.

“Its okay boy,” she sighed. “Its just my anxiety acting up again, I’ll get over it.” She tucked her legs up to her chest and hugged them loosely with one arm as she reached for the remote. She flicked through different shows and movies on Netflix, unable to really settle on anything. She resorted to restarting the anime Manslayer, and was only able to partially pay attention as she felt her nervousness wash over her. As she felt her body slowly ramp down the fight or flight response she had to her faux public speaking incident, she felt her energy ebb away.

“Lets head to bed a bit early tonight Bowser,” she said as she pushed herself off the couch and slowly made her way to the bedroom. Bowser lazily followed along behind, his body language saying he agreed with the decision to turn in a bit early.

\----------------------------------------

Sam awoke to a chirp from her phone. She groaned and snatched the mobile device from her bedside table and swiped her finger across the print reader. The screen illuminated, showing a single notification from her email. She had a message waiting for her on Indigineer. She leapt out of bed and jammed her arms into an oversized sweater to stave off the Saturday morning chill.

She snapped open her laptop and navigated her way over to her Indigineer profile, and there it was. A lone message sitting in her inbox. She nervously clicked to open it, and was met with a short couple of paragraphs with a collection of sample art. The person introduced themselves as Marshall, and was currently looking to make their entrance into the game dev community. The artist continued with a promise that they had plenty of free time available to commit to the game, and politely informed her of the different images attached and the story behind each one.

Sam read through the message a few times, then studied each of the pieces of art, amazed at the high quality of each one. She stared at the screen, considering how exactly she should reply. She drafted a few different responses, ranging from overly excited to stand-offish, then finally settled on a friendly, yet business-like tone.

Hello Marshall, its a pleasure to meet you, her response started. I’m impressed with your artistic talent, your samples are great! I think your style may be just what I’m looking for with my next game. Would you be able to meet over video chat to discuss the project further? Sincerely, Sam.

She read over her short response more times than she cared to admit, then finally managed to send off the response when she was satisfied. As she began to prepare breakfast, another ping sounded from her phone.

Wow, they responded really quickly, she thought, heading over to her computer as two slices of bread tanned themselves in her toaster. She eagerly opened the response message, which contained only two sentences.

Sounds great to me Sam! When would you like to meet? Marshall’s response read.

Are you available sometime today? Sam began the message with, then rattled off a few times ranging form an hour from then to later in the evening. Another ping, another quick response.

At 11:00 AM sounds great to me, will you send over the link when its time? Looking forward to meeting with you, was Marshall’s response. Sam glanced at the time on the phone, observing that he picked the earliest option she’d provided.

“He’s really eager for this project,” Sam said quietly to herself, a mixture of hope and reluctance swirled in her tone. She was glad he seemed excited to get started, but she also didn’t want to get her hopes up given his lack of experience with any game design.

Sam spent the next hour wrapping up her breakfast and getting changed into comfortable, daytime clothing, consisting of a cream short-sleeve shirt beneath a baggy purple sweater and a pair of loose-fitting blue jeans. She booted up a Google Hangouts call, adjusted her camera to ensure only herself and a small snippet of her couch could be seen, then shot the link over to Marshall. Within seconds, a man’s face appeared as the other member of the call. His long, shaggy black hair draped down to brush his shoulders. His dark brown eyes sparkled with delight as he waved slightly.

“Hey, nice to meet you Sam, I’m Marshall!” he said, his deep voice managing to draw Sam in almost instantaneously.

“N-nice to meet you Marshall,” she said, slightly flustered. She realized how handsomely his hair framed his face and couldn’t help herself from acknowledging her immediate attraction to him. She brushed those feelings aside and took a deep breath to ground herself.

“So you’ve never done game design before, but your art is amazing honestly. What kept you from doing it before?”

“Well honestly,” said Marshall. “I fought it for a long time and went with the career I thought I was supposed to have, specifically law, but as I got into it, I realized how much I hated it. I’ve been in between jobs now, but I really want to follow my own dreams, which is becoming a game designer.” Sam listened intently to Marshall’s response, feeling the sincerity in his every word, but also becoming more confused with each word he spoke. It was as if there was an echo just behind her, muffled by the wall adjoining herself and her neighbor. He’d moved in a few weeks ago, but she hadn’t had the chance to greet him yet between her own job and her new game.

It can’t be, she thought.

“Hey Marshall, can we take a quick 5 minute break?” she asked. “Sorry I know we just started.”

“Oh yeah sure Sam, whatever you need!” responded Marshall cheerfully.

“Awesome, I’ll be right back,” she said, muting herself and switching off her video. She slipped her shoes on and rushed out the front door, unable to fight the gnawing curiosity a second longer. Her anxiety was left behind by her stubborn will to know whether or not her intuition was right.

She knocked quietly on her neighbor’s door, then suddenly felt subconscious.

What if its not him, she thought in a panic. Crap now I’ll need a good excuse. Its weird to just randomly come over to introduce yourself when they moved in weeks ago right? Yeaup totally weird. Good job Sam, your neighbor is going to think you’re a grade A weirdo. Sam nearly turned to scurry back to her room in shame, when the door before her swung open.

“Wait, Sam?!” shouted Marshall incredulously.

“Marshall?!” was all Sam could reply, cursing the fact that her hunch was right.


End file.
